Between 1929 and 1933, when the design of the 100 settled, for at least a few years, into the form we know, the pens underwent a dizzying series of developments. Those who should know better often claim that it’s easy to collect Pelikans because there was only one model. To those of us who pursue the elusive early birds there is a dizzying array of variants--plain caps and caps with bands; caps with a single pair of vents and double vents; cylindrical captops and tapered captops; barrels made of bakelite, barrels made of celluloid and barrels made of acrylics; sections that are straight and sections that taper, feeds with three even vanes and feeds with a recessed center vane. You get the idea, and I haven’t even begun to talk about the real arcana, for example the section to inner cap seals. Through all these changes, month by month Pelikan was tweaking the design and function of the pen.

Then came form. Possibly as early as 1930, but certainly by 1931, Pelikan decided to produce their basic pen for the luxury market, which despite hard times, still existed. The 111 was probably the first of these. It featured a guilloched 14 karat solid gold band over the basic celluloid shaft. The rest of the pen was the standard black hard rubber. The 110, despite it’s earlier number, came next with a white gold-filled cap, captop and barrel. Only the black turning knob remained uncovered. This was followed by the 112, which was all 14 Karat gold covered (except for the mechanism). Most famously, the T111 offered a steel binde (not the sterling of the later 700 and 900 models) that was worked in the elaborate and painstaking Moorish-influenced, Toledo metalworking style.

	Toledo images courtesy of ChartPak

Heavy Metal—From the collection of Rick Propas/photography by Rick Propas.

According to company history, all these models came in 1931 and not later, as commonly assumed. Later in the decade, outside jewelers, most notably Maenner, produced authorized models that were more ornate and completely clad, top to bottom.

And then there were the less common celluloids in two styles. The basic 100 featured colored bindes in gray, red, yellow, blue, and brown marbled.

Blue 100 - Photography by David Isaacson, pen from the collection of Rick Propas.

(DI/blue100.jpg)There was also a tortoise shell with red hard rubber cap and mechanism.

RHR Tortoise 100 - Photography by David Isaacson, pen from the collection of Rick Propas

(DI/RHRtort100.jpg)These variants seem not to have been produced in large numbers and may have been marketed and sold mostly outside Germany. Today, when these uncommon pens become available they frequently fetch a ransom. The number 101 designated all-celluloid pens (except, as always, the turning mechanism). These pens came in lizard and tortoise, as well as red, green and blue. The latter colors resemble not the marbled bands of the “regular” pens, but the jades, lapis and corals of American makers.

Coral 101: from the collection of Gerhard Brandl/photography by Gerhard Brandl.

Lizard 101—From the collection of Rick Propas/photography by Rick Propas.

These pens rival 110s, 111s and 112s in value and seem much less common.

With these successes, beginning in 1934 Pelikan expanded. First came a mechanical pencil, the 200, as well as a less common variant, the short 210, both marketed as the “Auch Pelikan” or “Pelikan, too.” Put simply the design of the pencil was the “clicker.” The pencil, also has its own arcana in terms of markings and materials. In the interests of sanity, we’ll let that go for now. Like the pen, the pencil was relatively advanced, especially in comparison to the simple, even primitive, propel/repel pencils produced by other German makers such as Kaweco and Osmia.

Over the next three years, Pelikan began to seriously revise their product line for reasons that were both technical and market driven. Around 1937 Pelikan replaced the yellow celluloid barrel with one of green plastic, a material that was more easily workable.

That was just the beginning. Although Pelikan by now was reknowned for the beauty of their celluloid Bindes, hard rubber was the basis for most of the pen, apart from the shaft. Hard rubber was and is a an unstable compound, essentially sulphurated rubber, susceptible to water damage and oxidation. Earlier pen makers had used other materials, such as bakelite and Pelikan had used it briefly for the shafts of their earliest pens. But bakelite is heavy and brittle and like hard rubber does not take color well.

Beginning with Sheaffer in 1926, celluloid came to dominate the manufacture of pens until after World War II. From the start, Pelikan had used celluloid for the bindes of most of their non-metal pens. After 1930 the bodies of the pens were of celluloid, but Pelikan stayed with hard rubber for the caps and captops until 1937 or 1938. Then, gradually, they began moving toward celluloid, first for the cap tubes, then for the captops, and finally for the filler mechanisms. Interestingly, Pelikan held onto the hard rubber machinery, which survived the war and later surfaced in Milan (more on that later). The result is that today many of the pens come down to us with mixed materials, a cap tube of celluloid mated to a hard rubber captop. Some of these pens may be later “marriages” but many are quite correct. Pelikan stayed with hard rubber for the mechanism somewhat longer, and for good reason. Celluloid proved difficult to mill in the distinctive manner of the Pelikan filler knob. They did produce a milled celluloid knob for a few years before introduction of a 100 model with the smooth knob (often erroneously designated the 100C), but by 1939, except for foreign production, hard rubber was gone from Pelikans.

The second reason for Pelikan’s augmentation of its line had to do with size. Compared to almost every pen of the time, the Pelikan 100 seemed small. In use the pen was, in fact, much larger than it seemed, for the cap posted high, creating a comfortable center of balance, and the gripping section was thick, filling the hand. But there was no denying the relatively small ink capacity when compared to larger pens.

In 1937, Pelikan introduced a new model. The 100N did not replace the 100, which continued in production until Pelikan shut down in 1944, but was offered alongside it. Interestingly, some of the early production 100Ns bear the characteristics of the early 100s, yellow celluloid barrels and hard rubber sections, mechanisms caps and captops. A few even have the old Pelikan logo, which was not streamlined until a year later.

The 100N was offered in variations similar to the 100, although the “minor” bindes, yellow, red, brown and blue, were dropped, as were the red, coral and jade 101s. What was left were the standard, green, black, gray, tortoise and lizard. Moreover, by1939, the precious metal models, if made, were no longer catalogued. By then, of course, rising economic and political stability began to seriously afflict all of Europe. By the latter part of the decade Pelikan, under government edict, also curtailed the use of gold for nibs, first at home and then abroad.

Note: Any history of Pelikan must rely on two basic accounts, those of Jürgen Dittmer and Martin Lehmann in Pelikan Schreibgeräte, and Andreas Lambrou, most completely in Fountain Pens of the World. In addition, I have used Pelikan’s own company history, available at ChartPak. I also found helpful material in The PENnant (vol.XV, no.2, Summer 2001) which was devoted to Pelikan and which I edited. Other material on pen history in general came from Bowen and Lambrou. There is a small amount of useful Pelikan material in Miroslav Tischler’s Penkala Writing Instruments. Regina Martini’s Pens & Pencils, is a good source for identifying models and for background.

I am indebted to Gerhard Brandl, Jurgen Dittmer, Martin Lehmann, Sharon Propas and Len Provisor who read, commented and fact-checked this history. I, and not they, however, am responsible for all errors, omissions and bad commas.

Text © 2003 Rick Propas. Photos © 2003 as indicated in captions.